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Travel Photo Thursday: My Ship Has Come In

Posted on January 26, 2012 //

One of the things I look forward to each week is watching the cruise ships as they pull into Montego Freeport. On Wednesdays, its usually a ship from Carnival’s fleet. On Thursdays, it’s one from another fleet, like Royal Caribbean or MSC Cruises.

To my surprise today, two Carnival ships, the Conquest, and the Magic – the newest Carnival ship to stop in Montego Bay – have come in. The Magic can accommodate 6,000 – 4,500 passengers and 1,400 crew; the Conquest 2,974 passengers and 1,150 crew.

Carnival Magic and Conquest, Montego Freeport

One of four cruise ship ports on Jamaica’s north coast, Montego Freeport was built in the 1960s on what was known then as the Bogue Islands. It has berths for 2 cruise ships. Ocho Rios, Port Antonio and Falmouth, which opened in 2011, are the other three ports.

Carnival Magic and Conquest, Montego Freeport

Carnival Magic and Conquest, Montego Freeport

Carnival Magic and Conquest, Montego Freeport

This is my submission to this week’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday series. Be sure to check out other photo and story entries on their website!

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When we lived in Vancouver I loved the start of the cruise ship season because it meant longer days and summer was around the corner. On a heavy day – like a weekend day we’d see up to 5 sailing for Alaska. It was also interesting if you caught them all lit up sailing back to Vancouver – usually at about 5:30 in the morning.
Great set of photos and your one at night turned out really well.Leigh recently posted..Travel Photo Thursday: Shooting Calgary at Night

Nice pictures! I love wandering into San Francisco and seeing a cruise ship docked. I have never really cruised but they are such amazing structures. Love the color of the water. . .Debbie Beardsley recently posted..Cahors ~ A French Gem

I must admit, I’m a bit ambivalent about cruise ships. We were on a cruise last year, and my kids loved every minute of it. I couldn’t help but notice the incredible overabundance of well… everything, though – and thinking this must surely mean enormous amounts of rubbish. I was also quite concerned about working conditions for parts of the crew. I talked to quite a few and some of them didn’t even have a day off work throughout the week. Others hadn’t been able to go home and see their small children in almost a year! If I go on another cruise, I will probably choose a small, simple ship.

That said, they do look cool, especially at night – almost futuristic, some of them. When we entered the Panama Canal in the wee hours of the morning, the ships looked like structures that had been set down there from another planet Sophie recently posted..Warsaw’s Jewish cemetery: a memorial to a cruel past

I’m quite ambivalent too, Sophie. We also spoke with some of the crew on our ship and heard the same thing. One thing that was also pointed out is that they’re assigned to ships that don’t ply the regions near where they’re from. For example, a Jamaican crew member would work a Mediterranean cruise, and vice versa.
Before we went, everyone I spoke with talked about the enormous amounts of food that was available on board, and they were right — there was food day and night.
The best part for us, and I’m sure for parents of small children, is that they had activities for them so the adults didn’t have to think about what to do to keep them occupied and we didn’t hear “I’m bored” once.
They are pretty cool to see, especially up close. Hahaha, they do look like they could come from another planet!

I’ve never been on a cruise ship, so I didn’t really know how big they were until we saw a bunch when we were in Miami. I couldn’t believe how massive they looked! We saw three or four in a row and it was quite an impressive site.Christy recently posted..Prague versus Budapest: An Eastern European Smackdown

Thank you for some other wonderful post. Where else may just anybody get that kind of info in such a perfect manner of writing?
Many of the islands visited by cruise ships are not as nice as the areas the tourists see. I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I am at the look for such info.

You’re very welcome. And thank you for your comment.
Good luck with your presentation.

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed. Read More…